Support for SEC nominee

Among Pitt's clients, a sex company

LeticiaWilliams

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- The White House brushed aside qualms about a sexy client that once hired the nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.

President Bush's selection, Harvey Pitt, helped an adult video company out of hot water with Nasdaq in a1999 case, according to SEC reports Friday.

New Frontier Media Inc. hired Pitt to help it keep its shares listed on Nasdaq after the company's executives restructured two stock sales that ran into problems with Nasdaq rules, according to an Associated Press report.

Boulder, Colo.-based New Media Frontier owns, operates and distributes three adult programming networks. The company owns a network of sexually explicit Web sites through subsidiary IGallery.com that tout teen sex and nude performances.

President Bush on Thursday nominated Pitt, a veteran securities lawyer whose clients have included inside trader Ivan Boesky and the New York Stock Exchange, as chairman of the SEC.

Pitt, a former SEC general counsel in the mid-1970s, the agency's highest legal post, has to be confirmed by the Senate.

Pitt declined comment on the New Frontier case and the White House responded with a statement about Pitt's experience and high qualifications.

The disclosure about Pitt comes as Republicans brace for personal attacks on Bush nominees. On Thursday, a Washington Post story cited conflicting testimony about solicitor general nominee Theodore Olson's role in a conservative magazine's investigation of former President Clinton. Olson also led Bush's legal effort in the Florida ballot fight.

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